While the majority of people who need to lose weight tend to look first to their diet and then to the easiest ways of dieting in order to bring about a practically work-free way of achieving that end, they are missing out on a vital aspect of the process. That aspect is exercise and the many benefits that it brings to the process of losing weight not only in the short term but also in the long term as well.

This article takes a look at the role that exercise plays in the weight loss process and how it can be used to boost the effectiveness of any diet. At the same time it provides some great tips on how you can provide yourself with a long lasting, long term way to get and keep a slim, great looking figure.

Shaping Up

The primary reason for anyone losing weight from a purely vanity point of view is to shed that chubby, overweight, out of shape body and turn it into a slim, toned and sexy looking figure to be proud of. Unfortunately, dieting on its own is simply not enough to achieve that end, especially if you have been carrying a lot of excess pounds around with you for a long time, say several years or more. To get an out of shape body into shape, it has to be exercised.

Shaping up is all about strengthening the muscles that give a body its great shape. It is the muscles that hold everything together and all the internal parts in the right places.

When those muscles get weak and loose through lack of use over time, the body gets out of shape. The belly extends, the sides blubber out, the upper arms go flabby, the upper legs grow large and wobbly and the backside starts to look like it ought to be on a hippo instead on a human!

Dieting along doesn't do anything to strengthen the muscles that are needed to pull it all in and make it look good again. All it does is help the body lose some of its store of fat, that has been deposited around the body and it is what gives it that blubbery appearance. So you can see there are two angles you have to approach this by in order to get a toned, slim and great looking body.

Exercise and Diet

You can do it all by exercise alone, although what can happen in some cases is that the muscles grow strong and tighten up faster than the body burns off all the excess fat. When this happens you can actually end up looking a little lumpy for a while until all the fat is finally removed.

You can counter this from happening by choosing one of the better diets and using it to augment the exercises you are doing. Dieting speeds up that side of the process, so that you eat low calorie meals to force the body to get the extra energy it needs from its store of fat to run the muscles while you are exercising.

You also need to increase the amount of protein rich food you are eating as part of that diet to give the muscles something to build with. The stronger your muscles get through a combination of exercise and building from the protein in your food, the more calories they will burn during and after exercise.

Take it Slow

As long as you take this process slow and steady, then you will gradually see your body slim down and shape up. It will gradually lose its flabby appearance and start to look more toned and slimmer, fitter and better defined. This is one of the great weight loss tips you can use to your advantage! Doing this slowly allows your body time to get rid of its fat stores while the muscles get stringer and into shape, thus avoiding the possibility mentioned above of getting a lumpy appearance with fat remaining beneath the muscle in places.

The other benefit of doing this slowly and steadily is that you gradually increase your body's strength and stamina so that it gets used to burning more calories each day. It can keep this going in the long term so that once you have achieved the great body shape that you were aiming at, you get to keep it as long as you keep up a daily exercise routine. It doesn't need to be over strenuous, just enough to keep things ticking over so that you can eat a decent diet and not gain any more weight.